By Warren Kozireski —
It has been quite the grind for Yonkers native and Princeton junior defenseman David Ma. After missing the first half of his sophomore season and all his junior year due to shoulder injuries, the 5’11”, 180 lb. blueliner is back to playing major minutes on the first defense pair for the Tigers.
“I’ve felt good, it’s always a challenge coming back from a long hiatus and just getting the legs rolling, getting the reps back in and kind of feeling it out has been huge,” Ma said in late-November. “But I feel good so that’s been a positive.
“I had a shoulder surgery the year before and the whole year I missed last year was for the second one (surgery).”
Ma’s parents originally emigrated to Canada before moving to the New York City area. And that likely led to them putting their son on skates.
“For some reason, my mom knew how to skate…and took me on the ice when I was three years old. The first time I went on the ice I was iffy at best. The second time I was practically skating, and everyone was impressed, so a hockey coach came up to my parents and were like ‘you should have your son try out hockey’ and that’s how I got started.”
A few years later Ma developed his game with the Westchester Skating Academy and Mid-Fairfield.
Then his journey saw him leave home at just 14 years of age to play for the vaunted Shattuck St. Mary’s program in Minnesota for four seasons. During this period, he was also part of Team USA for the 2019 Hlinka/Gretzky Cup before dressing for one season with the Chicago Steel in the USHL where he helped them win a Clark Cup championship.
“I was kind of looking to go prep school because my parents, it took a lot out of them, they both worked and just driving on the weekends and all that time spent,” Ma said about his decision to attend Shattuck.
“I wanted to do something where it was all-encompassing with all the school that I was missing, so I thought prep school was a good option and Shattuck had such a well-renowned name with some elite players coming through, so I thought that was a good option.
“Knew a couple of people there and they introduced me, and the rest is history. I loved my time there…just sitting at the mini-rink and play hockey for hours was something I loved doing.”
On to Princeton where the Economics major scored his first collegiate goal in his first game at Brown before the injuries struck. This season he is on pace for his best season with one goal and two assists in just the first six games.
“We’ll see where hockey takes me. Stay healthy and see how long I can play for.”
Ma took last year completely off, so has junior status this season with one more year of eligibility. Hopefully, plenty more time quarterbacking the Princeton power play.
(Photos provided by Princeton Men’s Hockey and Athletic Departments))
